


Through the Looking Glass

by rosied



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Mirror Universe, Multi, Prison, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-14 08:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7161938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosied/pseuds/rosied
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Who better to spot someone's imposter than his Mirror Universe counterpart?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through the Looking Glass

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MissHammer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissHammer/gifts).



Doctor Bashir came into Engineering and found Chief O'Brien scanning something with his tricorder. “Oh, there you are, Miles. I was looking for you to ask if you want to go to the holodeck, and Keiko said you'd called her to say you'd be late. What are you doing?”

“I'm looking at this device I found that the Cardies left behind and trying to figure out what it's for." O'Brien scanned the device again. “There's some kind of forcefield surrounding it, and I can't figure out how to get past it.”

Julian came to stand next to O'Brien and looked at the device curiously. Suddenly he stumbled, and fell forward, reaching out instinctively with one hand to save himself from falling. The hand made contact with the forcefield. There was a flash of green light for a moment, then Chief O'Brien caught him and pulled him back. Julian grimaced in pain, holding onto the affected hand and cursing.

O'Brien glared at him. “Dammit, Julian, will you watch what you're doing? You're not usually that clumsy!”

“I didn't do it on purpose – it felt as if I was being pulled towards...”

He was interrupted by another green flash, and a man fell backwards out of the forcefield. He regained his footing, then also grabbed his hand and swore, much more colorfully than Julian had. He turned towards O'Brien. “What the hell do you think you're doing, Smiley, you could have killed...” He broke off, looking at Bashir and O'Brien, who were staring at him in shock. “Where am I?”

Julian pulled himself together and approached the man, who looked identical to him. “You must be Jules. Captain Sisko told me about you. You're on Deep Space Nine - though I suppose you still call it Terok Nor on your side of the mirror. Welcome to our universe, Jules, I'm delighted to meet you! Forgive me for not shaking hands, but...” He showed his injured hand to Jules, who smiled slightly and reciprocated. Their injured hands were a mirror image of each other. “Look, why don't you come to Sickbay with me? I'll heal our hands and then we can decide what to do about this.”

Jules was shaking his head violently. “No! I'm not going anywhere near any doctors! I've had enough of them experimenting on me!” He looked around for an escape route.

“It's OK, Jules,” Julian reassured him. “You don't have to go to Sickbay. But I'm a doctor, and I don't experiment on my patients, I promise. Let me go to Sickbay and get a protoplaser. I'll heal my own hand first, so you can see that the procedure works, then I'll heal yours. Will you trust me to do that?”

Jules looked suspiciously at O'Brien. “I trust you, but he looks too much like Smiley. What if he tries something while you're gone?”

Julian sighed, then in one smooth movement, before either Jules or O'Brien could react, he pulled out his phaser and slid it along the floor towards Jules.

“There! Now if Chief O'Brien does 'try something', not that he was going to, you can shoot him.”

Jules scooped the phaser up with his good hand and pointed it at O'Brien.

“Oh, thanks a bunch, Julian!” the Chief grumbled, raising his hands to show he meant no harm.

When Julian got back with the protoplaser, he brought the news that the reaction of the forcefield had been picked up in Ops, as had the fact that there was an extra Bashir on the station, and Captain Sisko wanted to see everyone involved immediately. "Or at least, after I've patched up our hands," he said, suiting his action to his words.

\---------- 

When the trio got to Ops, Sisko's first question was, "Why did you come here, Mr Bashir? What do you want?"

"I didn't come here on purpose, if that's what you're getting at," snapped Jules. "All I know is that I fell into some sort of forcefield round a Cardassian device that Smiley - O'Brien - was working on, there was a flash of green light, and when I jumped back out of it I was here - and my hand hurt."

“As far as I'm concerned," said Julian, "I was watching Chief O'Brien working on the device on our side, when I suddenly felt myself being pulled towards it. I would have fallen into the forcefield myself if the Chief hadn't managed to pull me back. As it was, I touched it with one hand, I also saw a flash of green light, and it felt like I burned my hand - looked like it too. Then almost immediately Jules here appeared.”

“Lucky you,” replied Jules. “Smiley pushed me into the one on our side. Oh, I'm sure it was an accident, he wouldn't have wanted the device to be damaged! He was just angry because I punched him.”

"Why am I not surprised to hear that?" said Sisko. "Can you actually do anything besides hit people?"

Jules started to move towards Sisko aggressively, but Julian pulled him back. "Don't, Jules," he hissed. "You're just proving his point!"

"This is very interesting," Dax remarked. "Do you think the same device was involved in both universes, Chief?"

"It certainly sounds like it - maybe Jules can give us a description of it?"

"Not really - I was focussed on Smiley - I didn't take any notice of the device." 

"Well, if we assume it was the same device in each universe, it's possible that Mr Bashir being pushed into the device on his side caused Julian to be pulled towards it here, but the transfer only happened one way due to your quick action on our side, Chief. It's as if there were a link between counterparts in the different universes. I wonder if it applies to everyone who has a counterpart, or just to people who have already visited the other universe. I think the latter option must be the case, otherwise there would many more random transfers happening. Maybe we could get together and devise some tests, Miles."

"It's an interesting problem, that's for sure," O'Brien said thoughtfully.

Sisko interrupted them. “Before the two of you get carried away, the immediate problem is that we need to find a way to send you back, Mr Bashir, without sending Doctor Bashir with you.”

Julian nodded his head vigorously.

“Don't bother!" said Jules aggressively. "I'm not going back! Why would I want to go back there? Even the brief glimpse I had of this station on the way here was enough for me to see how much better it is for Terrans in this universe!”

“I certainly wouldn't want to go back there from what I've heard,” said Jadzia. “And I don't see why he shouldn't be allowed to stay here, Benjamin. It's not as if he'll be breaking any laws.”

“No, but he's needed over there – he has obligations...”

Julian started to get angry. “That's for Jules to decide, not us!”

Miles added, “I don't think I'd feel any obligations to a universe where my 'friends' didn't care if they killed me. I mean, I'm sure Jules can be as big a pain as Julian...” the two Bashirs glared at him “...but I'd never do that! I say if Jules wants to stay here, then let him.”

“You're not the one who makes that decision here, Chief O'Brien. I'm in command of this station and I say he's going back!” Sisko looked at Odo. “I think you'd better take him into custody, Constable, so he doesn't try to leave the station.”

At this, Julian stepped in front of his counterpart protectively.

Sisko raised an eyebrow. “Are you defying my orders, _Lieutenant_ Bashir? Because if you are, then I'll have the Constable take you both into custody.”

Kira had been silent, listening to the discussion, but now she spoke up. “Actually, there is a way to let Mr Bashir decide for himself what he wants to do.”

Everyone turned to her, anger on Sisko's face and hope appearing on Jules and Julian's faces.

“If Jules were to appeal to the Bajoran government for political asylum, he'd have to stay here at least until a decision was made about that, and if it were granted he'd be able to stay permanently – and from everything I saw over there, I'd definitely testify in favor of his being allowed to stay.”

“Jules?” prompted Julian.

Jules found his voice. “I'm applying for political asylum. It's not as if anyone over there cares whether I live or die,” he said, looking defiantly at Sisko, who threw his hands up in resignation.

“Very well, but I'm making you personally responsible for his behavior on this station, Doctor Bashir.”

“Gladly, Sir!” said Julian, smiling broadly. “Come on, Jules, let's find you quarters, then we can get a meal at the Replimat – I'm sure you must be hungry.” He practically dragged Jules out of Ops.

“Well, Major,” said Sisko, “I hope you don't end up regretting this like you did the time that Kohn-Ma terrorist asked for asylum.”

Kira's glare followed him as he climbed the stairs to his office.

\----------

A while later, Jules and Julian were sitting deep in conversation in the Replimat when Garak put in an appearance. “My dear Doctor, what a pleasure it is to see you, as always! And this must be your counterpart from the Mirror Universe who I've heard so much about. I've been hearing rumors that he was... visiting, shall we say? Perhaps I might join you both, as you and I missed having lunch together today, Doctor.”

He made as if to sit down, but Jules leapt to his feet, grabbing a knife from the table. "Get away from me, Cardie, or I'll kill you!"

"I assure you, young, man, I mean you no harm," Garak said, lifting his hands placatingly.'

Julian placed his hand on Jules' arm. “It's all right, Jules - Garak's totally different to his counterpart." When Jules showed no sign of relaxing he turned his attention to the tailor. "I'm sorry, Garak, Jules is used to Cardassians being his enemies. Maybe our lunches should be in abeyance for a while. I don't like asking, but maybe you could stay away from us until Jules has had a chance to get used to this universe.”

There was a flicker of what Julian thought looked like hurt in Garak's eyes for a moment, but quickly decided he had been mistaken when Garak smiled brightly and said, “Certainly, Doctor Bashir, I quite see your point, and I will wait until you tell me it is safe to resume our lunches. Please excuse me now, I find I have some tailoring I need to see to urgently."

“Thank you, Garak, I knew you'd understand!”

As soon as Garak was gone, Jules sat down slowly and Julian turned towards him. "Now tell me what that was all about.”

"Like you said, Cardassians have always been my enemies."

"It was more than that, though - you were absolutely terrified of Garak. I could feel you trembling when I touched your arm - you still are. Why?"

"I... I don't want to talk about it here - there are too many people."

"Let's go back to my quarters then. We can talk privately there."

When they got to Julian's quarters, Julian got them both a drink, and sat down next to Jules, who was still trembling. Julian put his arm around his counterpart and asked softly "What is it?"

Suddenly, Jules buried his head in Julian's shoulder, and words came tumbling out. "I can barely remember it, but when I was a child I was different from all the other children around me. Then one day HE came with a lot of soldiers..."

"Garak from your universe?"

"Yes, and he took me to Cardassian doctors, and they experimented on me and kept injecting me with things, and testing me to see how quickly I could learn, how strong I was, how fast I was, and everything was changing, and I was so frightened... then as soon as they were finished with me, they just threw me in the mines. " He was sobbing by now, and Julian was holding him and rubbing his back comfortingly.

“I wondered if that had happened to you, too. It was my parents who took me, but it was still terrifying and strange. And I've had to hide my abilities and never been able to talk to anyone about it until now, because genetic enhancement is illegal in this universe, and I couldn't have become a doctor or joined Starfleet. And if anyone ever finds out, I'll be dishonourably discharged from Starfleet and never be able to work as a doctor again. Sometimes I feel so lonely, having to hide who I really am all the time."

"I know what you mean. I've never been able to tell anyone either - they'd think I was a freak, and probably kill me because the Cardassians might have programmed me to be a spy."

“It's all right now, you're safe here, I won't let anything bad happen to you, I promise. We won't have to be lonely anymore, because we've got each other to talk to."

\---------- 

Over the next few weeks Garak observed that Julian spoke to him less and less, and he was soon spending all his free time with Jules; occasionally Chief O'Brien would join them both for a holodeck adventure. He found that he was missing his friend intensely, despite his efforts to keep himself occupied, and resented Jules for this. Yet despite this, he found that he was drawn to Jules just as much as he was to Julian, and wished that he could get to know him as well as he knew Julian.

\---------- 

Jules was waiting impatiently at the docking ring one day, as Julian was due back from the burns conference he'd had to go to. They'd messaged each other every day, but it wasn't the same. As Julian emerged from the airlock at which he had docked his runabout, Jules hastened towards him, holding out his arms to pull Julian into a hug. Suddenly he stopped and backed away. "Who are you?" he demanded. "You're not Julian! What have you done to him? What are you doing here?"

People had started to look at them by now. Captain Sisko, who with Kira and Odo had been waiting to greet a Bajoran diplomat who was visiting the station, came over to them.

'What's going on here?"

Jules turned to Sisko frantically. "This isn't Julian! He's an imposter! He must be one of these changelings like Odo that you keep talking about!"

"I really don't think so, Mr Bashir. Julian has passed all his routine blood screenings, and I'm sure they must have been done at the conference too."

"Yes, they were," the doctor confirmed.

"There you are then. You must be imagining it."

“It's not Julian, I'm telling you! You have to arrest him!”

“Calm down, Jules," the doctor said. "I've been worried about you for a while. You've been showing signs of instability, which isn't surprising considering the things you went through in your own universe. You need to let me help you – I'll run some tests on you and...”

“No! Don't come near me! I'm not letting you run any tests on me, you'll just kill me because I know what you are!” Jules turned to run away, but Odo reached out an elongated arm and caught him, wrapping the arm tightly round him so he couldn't escape.

Doctor Bashir pulled out a hypospray and injected it into Jules, whose struggles gradually grew weaker. “That was a tranquilizer," he explained, and then sighed. "I see the problem is much worse than I thought. Captain Sisko, I think Jules needs to be locked up for his own protection. He shouldn't be left alone at any time.”

“I agree with you. See to it, Constable.”

Before Odo could half-carry Jules away, Julian spoke gently to him. “I'm going to let you rest today, then tomorrow I'll start the tests. Don't worry, Jules, I'll take care of you.” He smiled.

From where he had been watching unnoticed, Garak raised an eyebrow.  _Well, well, well! Trouble in Paradise, it seems. Perhaps I should take this opportunity..._ walking up behind Bashir, he said, "Not the welcome you were hoping for, I imagine, Doctor."

Julian jumped slightly, then turned to him. "I'm sorry, Garak, I didn't see you - I was lost in thought."

"I'm sure you were - that was a surprising reaction from Mr Bashir. I imagine you must be very worried about him."

Julian shrugged. "He'll be OK after I've finished treating him."

"I'm sure he will. For now, though, why don't you join me at Quark's? I'll buy you a drink to steady your nerves."

"That sounds like an excellent idea!" said Julian, with a laugh. 

\----------

About an hour later, Garak left Quark's, encountering Miles O'Brien on his way to the door.

"Interesting conversation, Garak?" O'Brien asked, nodding towards Julian, who was chatting to Leeta.

"Very enlightening," replied the tailor. "But this is actually quite convenient, Mr O'Brien. I was about to find you to ask you if you'd be kind enough to take a look at my pattern-cutting machine, which has started to malfunction."

"I _am_  really busy with essential station maintenance, Garak. I suggest you ask Rom for help."

"Oh, I quite understand, Chief - it's just that Mrs O'Brien has ordered a new dress for the botany conference she's chairing on Bajor shortly, and if the pattern-cutting machine isn't repaired very soon, I won't have it ready in time."

"All right, all right, I'll come now - my life won't be worth living if Keiko doesn't have a new dress for the conference!"

\----------

That night, Jules was pacing up and down in his cell, unable to sleep, when the door to the office opened and Garak came in.

The Bajoran guard on duty got up from his chair. "What can I do for you, Sir? It's an unusual time for anyone to come here."

"Well, it's a rather delicate matter, so I wanted to wait until there weren't many people here. You see..." he looked at Jules, and leant forward so he could speak quietly to the guard. As the guard obligingly leant towards him to hear, Garak pulled out a hypospray and injected it into him. The guard collapsed immediately and Garak turned to Jules with a smile. “Just a strong sedative, my dear Jules, I assure you. He'll wake up completely unharmed in a few hours. Don't worry, I 'adapted' the surveillance system so that it will show you resting, and no-one will be able to see or hear us." He went over to Jules' cell and deactivated the forcefield that barred the exit.

Jules had backed up to the farthest corner of the cell. “What do you want, Garak? Have you come to gloat... or are you going to have me experimented on like you did in my universe? I'm not taking it any more - you'll have to kill me before I let any of you lay hands on me again!”

“No, no, no – I've come to get you out so that we can go and look for Julian.”

“You believe me?”

“Oh yes. Who better than you to recognize an imposter, no matter how good? You are, after all, the same person at heart. I've watched how close you and Julian have become over the last few weeks, and on the few occasions I've spent with him, all he talked about was you. So I took the opportunity to talk with the doctor, and do you know, he didn't mention you once during the course of our conversation. Whoever he is, he is NOT Julian Bashir. But we haven't got time to spend talking. We should be on our way.“

“How are we going to get off the station?”

“Chief O'Brien also had his suspicions about the doctor, and agreed with my assessment. He has left a shuttlecraft ready for us, and will conveniently be unable to track where we went. Now please, do hurry!”

\---------- 

As Jules piloted the runabout away from the station a thought occurred to him. "One small point - how are we ever going to find Julian? It's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"Well, we can do it the hard way - we can backtrack the route Julian's runabout would have taken from the burns conference - I'm assuming he was taken after the conference, since the imposter said he'd passed blood tests there. We'd have to scan for tetryon particles from a cloaked Jem'Hadar ship intercepting the runabout, then track that ship. Or we can do it the easy way."

"Which is?"

"Jules, how did you know immediately that it was not the real Julian who came back from the conference?"

"It's hard to explain... it's as if there's a connection between us, one I felt the moment I set eyes on him after coming through from the Mirror Universe. Julian has told me it was the same for him. I didn't feel that connection with the imposter."

"Exactly. He told me that too, in one of the few conversations we had since you came here. Now - concentrate on that connection, and tell me... WHERE IS JULIAN?"

 Jules closed his eyes, fists clenching as he tried to focus. Then all of a sudden, awareness gripped him. His eyes snapped open and he looked at Garak. "He's on the other side of the Wormhole! I'm going through - I'll know which direction to go when we're on the other side."

On the other side, Jules pointed in the direction of a nebula. "That way." 

"That's a bit unfortunate - our shields won't work in there. But then again, neither will the Jem'Hadar's sensors."

Jules took the runabout into the nebula. At first, all went well, but all of a sudden, they saw objects coming towards them.

"What are those?" Jules asked. At that point, the objects started firing at them.

"Jem'Hadar warships! There's a fleet building up here! Try and evade them while I get a message through to Deep Space Nine."

Jules was unable to shake the enemy ships, but Garak managed to get the message off before a transporter beam appeared, and three Jem'Hadar soldiers materialised.

“Well," said Garak, "THAT wasn't supposed to happen. We'll have to move onto Plan B.”

“What's Plan B?”

“For once, I don't have the slightest idea.”

\---------- 

Jules and Garak were taken to an internment camp for 'enemies of the Dominion', on a barren asteroid.

As the Jem'Hadar in charge was explaining the rules to them, Jules was looking around frantically. When the Jem'Hadar left, Jules said "He's here, Garak, I know he is!"

The next moment, Julian appeared round a corner. "Jules! I knew you'd come!" He ran to Jules, and the two of them threw their arms around each other and much to Garak's surprise, kissed each other passionately.

 _So, that's how things are_! Garak thought. All of a sudden he felt very lonely. He walked away from them, and heard the sound of fighting. Rounding a corner, he found a ring had been set up, and in the ring was a Klingon he knew, General Martok, fighting a Jem'Hadar. Once the fight was over, he spoke to the general, who said he had been there for two years, and to Garak's astonishment, told him that his mentor Tain was there too. He had started to build a transmitter in a space between cell walls to send a signal for help, but had been taken ill before he could finish. Martok took Garak to his cot to see him. Garak was surprised at how ill his mentor looked, even though Martok had told him Tain didn't have long to live.

He went over to Tain's bunk. "Tain, it's me, Garak."

"You came with Jules, then. Julian was sure he would come. Where are the others?"

"There are no others."

"You allowed yourself to be taken prisoner? I taught you better than that. Living on that station has dulled your wits."

"That's all you have to say to me?"

"What else is there to say? All you've done is to doom us both."

\----------

Garak was furious. He ranted to Julian and Jules about how he had spent his life trying to please Tain and getting repaid with exile. "Sentiment is the greatest weakness of all," he told them.

Julian disagreed with that completely, while Jules said that although he would have agreed wholeheartedly in the Mirror universe, here he was beginning to think differently.

As if on cue, Martok came to tell him that if he wished to speak to Tain again before he died, he should come now. Despite what he had just said, Garak went, followed quietly by Jules and Julian.

Tain heard Garak come into the room, and asked if it was him, saying that everything had gone dark and he couldn't see. He asked Garak whether he was alone.

Garak looked deliberately at Jules and Julian, who were leaning against the wall on the the opposite side of the room and said, "There's no-one else but you and me."

The two counterparts looked at each other with raised eyebrows, then turned their attention to what was being said.

Garak was begging Tain to acknowledge that he was his son. Eventually, Tain reminded him of a day they had spent together when Garak was five, watching him keep on getting back on a riding hound every time he fell off. Garak remembered it well - Tain had held his hand as they went home.

"I was proud of you that day," Tain said, and died.

Garak stared blankly at his mentor's body.

"Garak," Julian half-whispered. He and Jules came over and each gently put a hand on Garak's shoulders.

Then Martok entered. Garak got up, dislodging the comforting hands, and covered Tain's face with a blanket. "I don't know about you, gentlemen, but I have no further reason to stay. I suggest we find a way out of here."

\----------

Garak, as the one with the knowledge about such things, took over the transmitter, modifying the signal to reach the runabout and activate the transporters to beam them out of the camp. The crawlspace the transmitter was located in was very cramped, and was reached by a small entrance that was hidden behind one of the cots, opened by a home-made lever. The prisoners in the room, in addition to Julian, Garak, Jules and Martok, were a Romulan man and woman and a Breen who sat impassively on his cot. The Romulan woman took up station at the door to watch for approaching Jem'Hadar, while the man helped Julian to move the cot obscuring the entrance. Garak took a deep breath, and crawled into the narrow space. While he was working he commented to Julian that the crawlspace would make an excellent interrogation chamber for the Obsidian Order, "tight quarters, no air, bad lighting, random electric shocks."

Julian laughed. "Sounds like you're enjoying yourself in there."

However in reality, Garak was trying to distract himself from a return of the claustrophobia that had plagued him since an occasion when he had been trapped in a small space with the walls collapsing in on him. Eventually it became too much for him and he had to be dragged out by Julian after the light failed and he started banging on the wall to get out. He lay semi-comatose on his cot. Worried, Julian and Jules pulled a second cot over beside his and lay down on either side of him, holding him loosely and whispering soothing things in his ears, until he came to himself and firmly announced his intention of going back to work. After that, by unspoken consent they began to snuggle together every night, drawing support and strength from the closeness they shared. 

During this time, Jules had been watching the fights between General Martok and the Jem'Hadar. They turned out to be part of a system of fight training for new Jem'Hadar soldiers, forcing prisoners to engage in fights with them to give them experience fighting different races. As a Klingon, General Martok was considered the most challenging opponent, and was frequently selected. He fought willingly and with great ferocity, but was gradually being worn down by unceasing injuries, including the loss of an eye at the hands of Ikat'ika, the Jem'Hadar First. One day, Jules had had enough, and challenged the Jem'Hadar to try and beat him.

"You're all useless - I could beat you with one hand tied behind my back."

Martok objected strenuously, feeling his honor was being impugned. "Let me fight on. I am a Klingon, and you are a mere human. You will be crushed in seconds."

"Oh, there's more to me than meets the eye," Jules told him. "Let someone else have a turn. I need some exercise otherwise I'll get flabby."

Martok stepped back. "Very well. Let us see what you can do."

To everyone's surprise, Jules proved to be an expert fighter. Over the next few hours, he dispatched five Jem'Hadar, impressing First Ikat'ika and earning Martok's respect. By the end of the session, Martok was almost giddy with enthusiasm, singing Jules' praises to the other people in their room. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"It's a rather essential skill when you're a rebel in the Mirror universe."

"Maybe I should visit."

"I wouldn't recommend it."

Julian was less happy. "Don't get too carried away," he warned, binding up Jules' broken ribs. "There's a limit to how far I can patch you up here."

"You're always telling me I need an outlet for my aggression."

"Yes, but I didn't have  _this_ much of an outlet in mind!" He finished his work and took Jules by the shoulders, gazing deeply into his eyes. "For me - and for Garak - please don't get killed."

Jules smiled at him and at Garak. "I'll do my best."

"That's all we can hope for."

Garak felt a warm feeling inside at the thought that the two had included him in the moment. He went back to his work with enthusiasm, determined that they should all escape before anything could happen to Jules.

\----------

On the day the transmitter was due to be finished, Jules was yet again summoned to fight the Jem'Hadar. As had become usual Martok accompanied him. Today, however, they were kept waiting, and Ikat'ika was not present. When he appeared, the Vorta in charge of the Jem'Hadar was with him. He was intrigued by the Jem'Hadar First's reports of the fights, and had decided to watch.

Jules defiantly challenged Ikat'ika. "Is there no Jem'Hadar willing to face me?"

Ikat'ika replied, "Prepare yourself. I have found you a worthy opponent."

"Where is he?"

"Right in front of you." The First stepped into the fight circle. "Victory is life."

Jules smiled. "Paris or bust!"

The fight began.

\----------

In the barracks room, Garak was working in the crawlspace, when the Romulan lookout suddenly warned of Jem'Hadar approaching. There wasn't enough time to get Garak out of the crawlspace, so Julian knocked on the wall to warn Garak, and the entrance was closed up and covered.

Three Jem'Hadar came through the door. "Where is the Cardassian?" the leader demanded.

Julian shrugged. "Outside, I suppose. Why do you want him?"

The Jem'Hadar backhanded him, knocking him down. "He is to be put to death, and he is not outside. Search this room," he commanded his men.

In the crawlspace, Garak could hear the conversation, and started to work faster.

The guards started turning the room upside-down, and inevitably one of the them found the lever hidden under a pillow.

The leader turned to Julian. "If you wish to live, explain this."

Julian started to rattle off a list of non-existant components, until the leader lost his patience and shot one of the Romulans, vaporizing him. He turned his gun on the woman, saying, "She is next."

At that moment, the guard who had found the lever discovered the entrance to the crawlspace. "Sir, if you'll allow me?" he said, and started to open the crawlspace. Hearing this, Garak turned off the light. The Jem'Hadar leader holstered his gun and watched the guard, who started to crawl into the entrance. Suddenly, the Breen stepped forward, snatched the leader's gun and vaporised him. The guard at the crawlspace reacted quickly, dropping the lever and pulling his gun. He and the Breen vaporized each other simultaneously, while the Romulan attacked the third Jem'Hadar. As they struggled, Bashir snatched up the lever and killed the guard.

In the sudden silence, Garak's voice came from the crawlspace. "Doctor, would you keep the noise down? I'm trying to work in here."

"Are you nearly finished, Garak?"

"Three translator circuits left."

"Well work fast, because pretty soon we're going to be up to our necks in Jem'Hadar."

\----------

Outside, despite being badly beaten by the First, Jules refused to give up, despite Martok's urgings. As he tried desperately to stand yet again, the First stopped him. "Enough, Terran. You have proved your worth."

"You heard him, Jules. Enough."

"I. Will. Not. Yield." Jules was still struggling to get up.

Ikat-ika stepped back, regarding him silently.

"Finish it," demanded the Vorta. "Kill him!"

"I yield," said Ikat'ika. "I cannot defeat him, I can only kill him, and that no longer holds my interest."

Disgusted, the Vorta turned to go. "Kill them both!" he said as he walked off. Just as the other Jem'Hadar fired their weapons, the runabout's transporter carried Jules and Martok, along with Julian, Garak and the Romulan away. The last thing Jules saw as he dematerialized was Ikat'ika being vaporized.

"Pity," he remarked after he rematerialized on the runabout. "I rather liked him." He sat down in one of the pilot's chairs. "Let's get out of here."

\---------- 

The runabout headed for the Wormhole, but an unpleasant surprise was waiting for them.

"The fleet's still there!" Garak exclaimed. "What are we going to do? And we have to get a message through to the station to warn them about the changeling."

Jules shrugged. "We'll just have to fly up their backsides and right through them."

Julian turned to the others. "Go back and strap yourselves in - this could be a bit of a bumpy ride!"

"At least we're the ones with the benefit of surprise this time," Jules pointed out.

"True enough."

General Martok and the Romulan headed aft, but Garak remained. "Let me stay with you. Live or die, I want to be with the two of you for it."

Julian and Jules looked at each other.

"Yes?"

"Yes."

"OK. Stay with us. You can send the message to the station so we can concentrate on flying this thing." 

"Thank you. Right, let's get strapped in then."

"One thing first," said Julian.

He pulled Garak and Jules close to him and kissed them both fiercely. Then Jules kissed Garak. The three clung to each other for a moment, then broke apart.

"Right," said Jules. "Let's do it."

They all strapped in, and Julian's hands darted across his console. "Warp shadows enabled, phaser shadows, random patterns set up. The Jem'Hadar are going to think there's six of us, all firing phasers at them, and hopefully they'll spend most of their time shooting at the other five. Weapons enabled - let's get out of here!"

"OK, maximum warp - go, go go!" The runabout sped forward, and such was the surprise value, they managed to get halfway through the fleet before the Jem'Hadar realized what was happening and started firing. Then the Bashirs started flying in earnest, ducking and weaving in between the Jem'Hadar ships, coming within inches of collision, firing phasers and torpedoes as they went. The Jem'Hadar tried desperately to intercept them, and twice ships collided as they tried to match the runabout's maneuvers. Even as he sent the message repeatedly, Garak watched the two pilots in amazement. Their hands flew across the consoles at inhuman speeds, working as if they were one person without needing to exchange a word, gradually getting closer and closer to the Wormhole, until...

"Now! Run for it!" Julian shouted.

Jules turned and headed straight for the Wormhole, while Julian fired phasers behind them, both the real one from the runabout and the fake ones from the warp shadows. Such was the confusion created that the Jem'Hadar were only able to get a few hits on the runabout, none of them serious, before they were into the Wormhole. Julian watched the scanner anxiously for a moment, then relaxed. "They're not following us! We made it!"

Jules let out a whoop of joy, echoed by Julian. "We're brilliant!" They exchanged high fives.

As they exited the other side of the Wormhole, Garak picked up a signal. "The stations's hailing us!'

"Let's hear it," answered Jules.

"Sisko to runabout!" came the message. "The changeling has commandeered the Yukon and is heading for the Bajoran sun with a bomb on board. If that bomb explodes inside the sun, it'll trigger a supernova. You're the nearest ship to it - you must destroy it at any cost!"

"Acknowledged, Captain!" replied Julian. "Right - where is the bastard?" He worked the scanner furiously for a moment. "There! Got him!"

"We're too far away! We won't make it in time!" Garak cried.

"Oh yes we will!" snarled Jules. "Going to warp!"

"Tractor beams ready!" said Julian.

"Warp inside a solar system?" Garak sounded horrified.

"It's either that or no solar system," replied Julian as the ship hurtled towards its fellow runabout.

They caught up with and flew straight over the Yukon, and as they did, Julian said, "Tractor beams deployed," followed by, "Got him!"

The Yukon was dragged from impulse into warp, starting to break up under the strain, then, simultaneously: "Dropping to impulse." "Tractor released, shields to maximum." The Yukon, still in warp went tumbling away from them and from the sun, end over end, until it blew up with a blinding flash of light.

The Bashirs looked at each other, then at Garak.

"It looks like we survived, gentleman," Garak said, "and may I compliment you both on your amazing piloting skill?"

"Um, about what you saw..." started Jules.

"...are you going to tell anyone?" finished Julian.

"What could I possibly tell them, except it's amazing what an effect adrenalin has on Terrans?" Garak asked, blandly, then added, "Your secrets will always be safe with me, I promise."

Jules and Julian smiled in relief. "And yours with us," they replied simultaneously.

Garak smiled back at them. "Take us home," he said.

\----------

The first thing that Jules did when they got to the station was to march up to Captain Sisko, who was waiting with Gowron, and say, "I told you so!"

"You did indeed, Mr Bashir," Sisko acknowledged, "and I apologize sincerely."

"Well, that's OK, I guess," replied Jules, the wind rather taken out of his sails.

 "Right, gentlemen, we have a lot of debriefing to do," said Sisko.

"Must we really do it now?" asked Garak irritably. "I want to get clean, have something edible and then sleep for a week before I do anything else, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that!"

"Let me explain everything," said Martok. "These gentlemen deserve to relax, and I have two years of catching up that I'm anxious to do."

Sisko hesitated, but Gowron broke in to insist that he wanted to speak to Martok first, and Sisko was forced to agree. Jules, Julian and Garak hastened off before anyone could stop them.

"Sickbay first," said Julian firmly, "whether you like it or not, Jules, so I can treat your injuries properly."

"I'm too sore to argue," replied Jules, "and anyway, I feel safe anywhere you two are with me." While Julian was working on him, he went on to say, “Do we have to go back to our own quarters? I've got used to sleeping with the two of you, and I don't think I'll be able to sleep without you there.”

“Especially with everything that happened on the runabout,” added Julian.

They both looked at Garak hopefully.

"Well then, gentlemen, your place or mine?”

The two Bashirs' faces lit up with identical smiles of delight.

“Actually, thinking about it, we'll go to my quarters – they have far more personality than your Starfleet ones do.”

“Great!” said Julian. “Come on, Jules, let's go get our clothes and Kukulaka. We'll be right there, Garak.”

“Oh, you're planning on moving in permanently, are you?”

“Any objections?” the other two asked in unison.

Garak smiled at them. “No, not at all, my dears. I do like an interesting life, and I'm sure that between the two of you, you'll provide me with plenty of interest. Now do hurry up, I want to change into clean clothes, then go and find some food that will actually be edible!”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've borrowed some dialog from the DS9 episodes "In Purgatory's Shadow" and "By Inferno's Light".


End file.
